Introduction to Operating Systems Pg 1 of 7

Functions of Operating Systems Evolution of Shared Computing

Oversee operation of computer; allows the Batch processing
computer system resources to be used in an Interactive processing
efficient manner. Requires real-time processing
Time-sharing/Multitasking
Memory Management
Implemented by
Process Management
Multiprogramming
File Management
Multiprocessor machines
Device Management
Security

Batch processing

Interactive processing

Types of Software
Application software
Performs specific tasks
for users
System software
Provides infrastructure
for application software
Consists of operating
system and utility
software
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Bootstrapping

Boot loader: Program in ROM (example of firmware)

Run by the CPU when power is turned on
Transfers operating system from mass storage to main memory
Executes jump to operating system

Operating System Components

User Interface: Communicates with users, Kernel: Performs basic required functions
acts as an intermediary between users and the File manager
operating system kernel Device drivers
Text based (Shell)
Memory manager
Graphical user interface (GUI)
Scheduler and dispatcher

File Manager
Directory (or Folder): A user-created bundle of files and other directories
(subdirectories)
Directory Path: A sequence of directories within directories

Processes
Process: The activity of executing a program
Process State: Current status of the activity
Program counter
General purpose registers
Related portion of main memory

The key to multiprogramming is scheduling.

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Process Administration
Scheduler: Adds new processes to the process table and removes completed processes
from the process table
Dispatcher: Controls the allocation of time slices to the processes in the process table
The end of a time slice is signaled by an interrupt.

In fact, four types of scheduling are typically involved:

 Introduction to Operating Systems Pg 4 of 7

Process-state diagram

New: A program is admitted by the high-level scheduler but is not yet ready to execute. The OS
will initialize the process, moving it to the ready state.
Ready: The process is ready to execute and is awaiting access to the processor.
Running: The process is being executed by the processor.
Waiting: The process is suspended from execution waiting for some system resource, such as
I/O.
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Halted: The process has terminated and will be destroyed by the OS.

Time-sharing between process A and process B

Memory Manager
Allocates space in main memory
May create the illusion that the machine has more memory than it actually does (virtual
memory) by playing a shell game in which blocks of data (pages) are shifted back and
forth between main memory and mass storage
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Paging
Memory is partitioned into equal
fixed-size chunks that are relatively
small, and that each process is also
divided into small fixed-size chunks of
some size. Then the chunks of a
program, known as pages, could be
assigned to available chunks of
memory, known as frames, or page
frames. At most, then, the wasted
space in memory for that process is a
fraction of the last page.
Figure 8.15 shows an example of the
use of pages and frames. At a given
point in time, some of the frames in
memory are in use and some are free.
The list of free frames is maintained
by the OS. Process A, stored on disk,
consists of four pages. When it comes
time to load this process, the OS finds
four free frames and loads the four
pages of the process A into the four
frames.

The OS maintains a page table for each process. The page table shows the frame location for
each page of the process. Within the program, each logical address consists of a page number
and a relative address within the page. Recall that in the case of simple partitioning, a logical
address is the location of a word relative to the beginning of the program; the processor
translates that into a physical address. With paging, the logical-to-physical address translation is
still done by processor hardware. The processor must know how to access the page table of the
current process. Presented with a logical address (page number, relative address), the processor
uses the page table to produce a physical address (frame number, relative address). An example
is shown in Figure 8.16. This approach solves the problems raised earlier. Main memory is
divided into many small equal-size frames. Each process is divided into frame-size pages:
smaller processes require fewer pages, larger processes require more. When a process is brought
in, its pages are loaded into available frames, and a page table is set up.
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Demand paging, which simply means that each page of a process is brought in only when it is
needed, that is, on demand.
Consider a large process, consisting of a long program plus a number of arrays of data. Over any
short period of time, execution may be confined to a small section of the program (e.g., a
subroutine), and perhaps only one or two arrays of data are being used. This is the principle of
locality. It would clearly be wasteful to load in dozens of pages for that process when only a few
pages will be used before the program is suspended. We can make better use of memory by
loading in just a few pages. Then, if the program branches to an instruction on a page not in main
memory, or if the program references data on a page not in memory, a page fault is triggered.
This tells the OS to bring in the desired page. Thus, at any one time, only a few pages of any
given process are in memory, and therefore more processes can be maintained in memory.
Furthermore, time is saved because unused pages are not swapped in and out of memory.

However, the OS must be clever about how it manages this scheme. When it brings one page in,
it must throw another page out; this is known as page replacement. If it throws out a page just
before it is about to be used, then it will just have to go get that page again almost immediately.
Too much of this leads to a condition known as thrashing: the processor spends most of its
time swapping pages rather than executing instructions.
With demand paging, it is not necessary to load an entire process into main memory. This fact
has a remarkable consequence: It is possible for a process to be larger than all of main memory.
One of the most fundamental restrictions in programming has been lifted. Without demand
paging, a programmer must be acutely aware of how much memory is available. With demand
paging, that job is left to the OS and the hardware. Because a process executes only in main
memory, that memory is referred to as real memory. But a programmer or user perceives a
much larger memorythat which is allocated on the disk. This latter is therefore referred to as
virtual memory. Virtual memory allows for very effective multiprogramming and relieves the
user of the unnecessarily tight constraints of main memory.

Deadlock
Processes block each other from continuing
Conditions required for deadlock
1. Competition for non-sharable resources
2. Resources requested on a partial basis
3. An allocated resource cannot be forcibly retrieved